AirlinesChina limits flights per airline to one per week

27.03.2020

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has released a new plan to further reduce the passenger flights in China during COVID-19.

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The aviation authority released, that it has decided to further reduce the number of international passenger flights. Each Chinese airline is only allowed to maintain one route to any specific country with no more than one flight per week. Each foreign airline is only allowed to maintain one route to China with no more than one weekly flight.

These new restrictions will be enabled on March 29 and the main reason behind this decision is of course the aim to decelerate the spread of the Coronavirus. This week, China had loosened the restrictions for people in the provinces. It is now allowed for people to travel to different provinces.

Furthermore, CAAC wrote: "Airlines shall strictly implement the latest edition of Preventing Spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Guideline for Airlines issued by the Office of China Civil Aviation Prevention and Control COVID-19 Leading Group, take stringent prevention and control measures on the flights to/from China and ensure passenger load factor no higher than 75%."

CAAC also stated, that it may issue policy to further reduce the total number of international passenger flights, in accordance with the need for epidemic containment. The authority reached out to the airlines to closely follow the information released so that the right decision can be made.

All-cargo flights with passenger aircraft are still allowed to fly as planned and these flights will not be counted against the total number of passenger flights operated. An expiration date will be notified at a later point, said CAAC. It is still unclear, how the situation will develop.

The International Air Transportation Association IATA forecasted at the beginning of March, that the Asia-Pacific region would be the most affected one. The authority expected revenue losses of nearly US$ 30 billion. Prior this latest announcement by CAAC, nearly 20% of all international flights from China were operating as usual.

COVID-19 is continuing to negatively impact the aviation industry. The branch is one of the most affected. Many airlines are grounding the majority of their fleets as the travel demand has heavily decreased in the last weeks.